“I Might Just Be A Hockey Fan In California” is a feature that will be posted every Saturday here at the View From My Seats. There are plenty of things going on in the hockey world (and even the sports world); and you know everyone has an opinion. This is a place for some quick hits of the week that was.
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I might just be a hockey fan in California, but:
- I miss Ziggy Palffy.
- Forget statistics. When a GM says, “It’s like turning around the Titanic and not a rowboat,” ON the record to a reporter, you know that things aren’t going well.
Gold Medal or bust. No pressure or anything...
- Why don’t the winners of the Stanley Cup say, “I’m going to Disney World?” Maybe because saying, “I’m going to spend a day in Nova Scotia with the Cup” sounds so much sexier.
- The Hurricanes, Wild, Blue Jackets, Sharks, Bruins and Coyotes will all start next season in Europe. In related news, look for the Hurricanes, Wild, Blue Jackets, Sharks, Bruins and Coyotes to all get off to horrendous starts next season.
- The Flyers’ current goaltending situation is Michael Leighton, Brian Boucher and the hope of a healthy Ray Emery after the Olympic break. Tell me that ownership (or fans) are comfortable with this situation.
- When you start thinking of Paul Kariya as a depth guy and power play specialist, he looks a little better at the deadline, doesn’t he?
- If you asked me who I thought would win the Northeast Division a month ago, I would have looked at the schedule and wondered if you had ever heard of the Buffalo Sabres. Now? I would say that I had “no clue.” (But I’d be looking in the direction of Ottawa when I said it).
- How important are salaries in today’s NHL? About 30 teams could use a guy like Shawn Horcoff on their team—but not one of them could use him for the $7 million he’s getting paid this season.
- Nope. Still don’t care about the NBA regular season.
- I see that Chris Chelios beat a DUI charge because the Judge ruled that there wasn’t probable cause to pull him over. Note: He didn’t beat the charge because he wasn’t drunk—he beat it because he was only speeding and the cop had no right to pull him over.
- If Ducks fans could do it over, I wonder if they would still trade Chris Kunitz and their best prospect for Ryan Whitney. And yes, I know he’s an Olympian. The question stands.
- Note to all NHL teams: If there are 2 games on and YOURS isn’t broadcast in HD, I’m not watching your team. There’s no excuse for ANY of your broadcasts to be in Standard Def anymore. End of story.
- Is there anyone else out there that almost forgot that Pavol Demitra was still a member of the Vancouver Canucks?
- I don’t care how many times the Black Eyed Peas tell me to—I do NOT want to catch amnesia. In fact, I don’t want that song to be on continuous loop anymore either.
"Hey Matt... you know you're not going to win the Calder, right?"
- Is there really a good argument for Chris Osgood in net? Ever. Say hello to the Jimmy Howard era.
- No one should ever have to go through what Brian Burke and his family are trying to deal with. Ever.
- I know Waddell gets a lot of heat, but he’s acquired some good young pieces in the Kovalchuk and Lehtonen trades. They’re still in the playoff hunt in the East, he acquired 4 GOOD assets for a rental player AND dropped an injury-prone goaltender who had lost his starting spot for a promising defensive prospect. Give the man a little love.
- If Matt Duchene played in New York and Tavares played in Colorado, would there be ANY doubt for the Calder? No disrespect to Tavares at all—but Duchene is electric every time he’s on the ice.
- Going into Wednesday’s game in Anaheim, the Ducks had won 11 straight at home and the Oilers had lost 11 straight on the road. What was the point of watching that game?
- Gary Bettman is a pompous little person that needs to be fired for the good of the game.
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So what are your thoughts from the NHL week that was?
Click here for our archive of past editions of our “I Might Just Be A Hockey Fan In California” feature.
Matt Reitz
Matt Reitz is an NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports and the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com. When he's not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he's usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It's a never-ending job.
